Tag: as a photo in modern lingo crossword clue

Bill’s time: 6m 05s

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Awards for athletic achievements : ESPYS

The ESPY Awards, also known as the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, were first presented in a ceremony in 1993. They were created by ESPN as a response to the lack of sports coverage during the summer months. ESPN decided to create an awards show to help fill that gap.

10A Outer arm muscles, for short : TRIS

The triceps brachii muscle is found at the back of the upper arm. The muscle’s name translates from Latin to “three-headed arm muscle”, fitting as it is actually made up of three bundles of muscles.

19A Home of the Taj Mahal : AGRA

“Mahal” is the Urdu word for “palace”, as in “Taj Mahal” meaning “crown of palaces”. The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum holding the body of Mumtaz Mahal, the third wife of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. The name “Mumtaz Mahal” translates as “the chosen one of the palace”.

20A President Lincoln, informally : ABE

Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth President of the US. There are several stories told about how he earned the nickname “Honest Abe”. One story dates back to early in his career as a lawyer. Lincoln accidentally overcharged a client and then walked miles in order to right the wrong as soon as possible.

26A “Which ‘Little Rascals’ character has a cowlick, sugar?”___”” : ALFALFA, HONEY

Alfalfa was one Hollywood’s “Little Rascals”, also known as “Our Gang”. He was the young lad who sported the unique hairstyle, with a long spike of hair sticking up from the center of his head. Alfalfa’s real name was Carl Switzer. He and his brother were quite the young performers around his hometown in Illinois, singing and playing instruments. On a trip to California, the Switzer family were touring the Hal Roach movie studio and were fooling around in the studio cafeteria, basically giving an impromptu performance. Hal Roach happened to be there at the time, and signed both brothers up for roles in “Our Gang”. Carl was to play “Alfalfa”, and brother Harold played “Slim” (aka “Deadpan”).

34A Pitcher’s stat, for short : ERA

Earned run average (ERA)

38A Say if you’re attending, in brief : RSVP

RSVP is an initialism derived from the French phrase “Répondez s’il vous plaît”, meaning “Please respond”. It’s a polite way to ask your invited guests to let you know if they will be attending your event.

39A Bird that can outrun the fastest human sprinters : EMU

The emu has had a tough time in Australia since man settled there. There was even an “Emu War” in Western Australia in 1932 when migrating emus competed with livestock for water and food. Soldiers were sent in and used machine guns in an unsuccessful attempt to drive off the “invading force”. The emus were clever, breaking their usual formations and adopting guerrilla tactics, operating as smaller units. After 50 days of “war”, the military withdrew. Subsequent requests for military help for the farmers were ignored. The emus had emerged victorious …

46A Watermelon leftovers : RINDS

The watermelon that we find in the grocery store is actually a berry produced by the flowering, vine-like watermelon plant. Seedless watermelons were developed by Japanese scientists in 1939, and now seedless varieties account for over 80% of watermelon sales in the US.

51A Skewered dish served with peanut sauce : SATAY

The dish known as “satay” originated in Java, Indonesia and is marinated pieces of meat served on a skewer in a sauce, often a spicy peanut sauce. “Satay” is the Indonesian spelling, and “sate” is the Malay spelling.

52A Symbol of poison, often : SKULL

We’ve been using the skull and crossbones symbol to mark poisons since the 1800s. The image itself dates back to the Late Middle Ages, when it was a symbol of death.

58A Mule or moccasin : SHOE

A mule is a shoe without a back and usually with a closed toe. The original mule was a shoe worn by the highest magistrates in ancient Rome.

59A Cobra’s tooth : FANG

“Cobra” is the name given to a group of snakes, some of which are in different families. The term is reserved for those snakes that can expand their neck ribs to create a hood. The name “cobra” is an abbreviated form of “cobra de capello” which translates from Portuguese as “snake with hood”.

60A Order from the doc’s office : SCRIP

When used in a medical context, “scrip” is an abbreviation for “prescription”.

63A Something a bloodhound picks up : SCENT

Bloodhounds have an amazing sense of smell, and have been bred to track humans in particular. Bloodhounds have been used to follow humans since the Middle Ages.

Down

1D Bit of writing from Joan Didion : ESSAY

Joan Didion is a journalist and author who was profiled in the Netflix documentary “The Center Will Not Hold”. She won a Pulitzer for her autobiographical work “The Year of Magical Thinking”, which book she used as the basis for a stage play of the same name. The book focuses on the year following the death of her husband, while the play also encompasses the subsequent death of her daughter.

2D ___ diver : SCUBA

As a scuba diver descends into the water, the water pressure on the outside of the eardrum increases, whereas the pressure on the inside of the ear remains constant. This difference in pressure can cause the eardrum to distend, creating pain. A diver avoids the problem by holding the nose and gently blowing air through his or her eustachian tubes, equalizing the pressure inside and outside the eardrum. A similar process operates as the diver ascends, although it is the higher pressure in the middle ear that expels excess air through the eustachian tube into the mouth cavity. If the eustachian tube is blocked, perhaps because of an ear infection, then the persistent pressure difference can result in an excruciating earache after a dive.

3D Apples, pears and quinces, botanically : POMES

The Latin word for “fruit” is “pomum”, which gives us the botanical term “pome” that is used for a group of fleshy fruits, including apples and pears.

The quince is a fruit related to the apple and pear. Some people suggest that the fruit eaten from the Tree of Knowledge by Adam and Eve was in fact a quince.

7D Instrument similar to a heckelphone : OBOE

A heckelphone is a musical instrument like an oboe, but pitched an octave lower. The heckelphone was invented in 1904 by a manufacturer of woodwind instruments in Germany named Wilhelm Heckel.

13D One of seven in the Big Dipper : STAR

The constellation Ursa Major (Latin for “Larger Bear”) is often just called “the Big Dipper” because of the resemblance of its main stars to a ladle or dipper. Those stars also resemble a plow, and that’s what we usually call the same constellation back in Ireland the “Plough”.

24D Comic ___ (font) : SANS

Comic Sans MS is a font that looks a bit like that used in old comic books. It was released by Microsoft in 1994. If you live in the Netherlands, you are lucky enough to enjoy Comic Sans Day on the first Friday of July each year.

25D Indicator of a penalty, in soccer : CARD

A series of colored penalty cards is used by referees and umpires in several sports, most notably in soccer. The cards were first used in the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, after language difficulties created confusion during the prior competition in 1966. The main cards used are a yellow card indicating a caution, and a red card indicating expulsion from the game.

28D “A pox on thee!” : FIE!

A pox is any of the diseases that produces “pocks” on the skin, eruptive pustules. The pox might perhaps be smallpox or chickenpox. When cursing someone by saying “a pox on you”, the reference is to the “great pox”, namely syphilis.

31D Avoiding the limelight, say : CAMERA-SHY

Limelight was an early form of stage lighting that was also known as Drummond Light. The illumination came from the burning of quicklime (calcium hydroxide), hence the name. Although limelights are a thing of the past, the term “in the limelight” is still used when describing someone in the public eye.

32D Quality of a scholar : ERUDITION

“Erudite” is a lovely-sounding word meaning “learned, well-educated”. The term comes from the Latin verb “erudire” meaning “to educate”, or more literally “to bring out of the rough”.

37D Pop singer Rita : ORA

Rita Ora is a British singer who was born Rita Sahatçiu in Pristina, Yugoslavia to Albanian parents. The family name “Sahatçiu” comes from a Turkish word meaning “watchmaker”. Rita’s parents changed their name to make it easier to pronounce. So, the family name morphed from “watchmaker” to “time”, which is “ora” in Albanian.

40D Noble title on TV’s “Bridgerton” : LADY

“Bridgerton” is a fascinating period drama TV series based on a series of historical romance novels by Julia Quinn. Most of the action takes place in London’s high society during the Regency Era. An intriguing element is the show’s approach to race. There is a common, albeit unfounded, assertion that King George III’s wife Queen Charlotte was of African descent. “Bridgerton” runs with this assertion, portraying the era’s society as quite diverse.

45D Savory South Asian rice cake : IDLI

Idli (also “idly”) are savory rice cakes in the cuisine from the Indian subcontinent. The cakes are made from de-husked, fermented black lentils incorporated into a batter and then steamed.

49D Yitzhak ___, two-time Israeli P.M. : RABIN

Yitzhak Rabin was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, and the first Prime Minister to have been born in the relatively young state of Israel. Rabin was a signatory of the Oslo Accords in 1993, along with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, and US President Bill Clinton. Sadly, this led to his death as he was assassinated two years later by a right-wing radical who opposed the Accords.

53D “Citizen ___” : KANE

A central plot line in the 1941 movie “Citizen Kane” is a newsreel reporter’s quest to find the meaning of the dying word “Rosebud” spoken by the title character. Spoiler alert … it is revealed at the end of the movie that “Rosebud” is the name of the sled used by Kane in his childhood, which was the only period of his life in which he was really happy.

56D Someone you’re super-tight with, in brief : BFF

Best friend forever (BFF)

57D Secretly loop in, in a way : BCC

Blind carbon copy (bcc)